Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
different types of plastics to be used, 3D modeling your completed chain mail
design would be far beyond the capacity of any traditional design tool today.
A CT scan of a hand that was directly 3D printed without the scan data being
converted into a surface mesh or STL ile
3D printing is moving into multiple materials, another arena where design
software isn't ready yet to follow. Being able to print in several different
materials at once enables designers to combine materials in entirely new
ways that were not possible using traditional manufacturing. Not only does
multi-material printing make it possible to produce complicated, multi-part
objects in a single print job, it allows the creation of entirely new types of
materials, such as a graded material that gradually transitions from one
type to another.
The challenge, however, is that design software isn't yet ready to “think”
about multimaterials. It's one thing to model a gear in steel or titanium. It's
entirely another to model a gear that's created of a blend of light titanium on
